We love this week: getting new stationary, taking cabs, meeting chefs in  posh hotels, doormen, the Tubby van, the Pieminister, whiteboards and our motto this week:

We hate: the boom mike, the cold and being sick, last chance bidders on ebay, losing our mittens.

Know how

This week has been a good mix of working on our ideas and then being let loose on the community to do some research for a pitch. We’ve also had a very informative meeting from the guys at Viacom. We learnt that as far as outdoor media goes, if you can dream it up its probably going to happen in a few months time. The best bit is that the technology is already here, it’s just waiting for a brilliant idea to make the most of it!

Sick

We’ve been one man down all week…It’s got 3 of us already… Sophie watch out…

Interviews

We’ve been out on the streets on a mission, interviewing people and doing research for a pitch. This has been a learning curve- not only how best to get people’s time to tell you what they think, but on the technical side as well. We did almost a whole day before realising the boom mike wasn’t working. We had to get a new connection for the camera, and then we were fine. But it was really frustrating as we had some interesting stuff on camera, and some we would have to try and get again. And if it weren’t for the fact it taught us to check everything, it was a waste of a day.

After that, people were generally very helpful and after we got the hang of it we found we were learning so much first hand just listening to people talk, things we didn’t know or expect. But I guess that’s the point..

Discoveries

Check your equipment before you leave work.

Exhibitions – Paul Mc Carthy
Barbara saw an installation in nearby

…

This was roughly based on Disneyland’s Pirates of the

Caribbean

I read that his son Damon helped him build the installation and lost two fingers in the process so the least I should do is try and find out more.

2sides of skate from your fishmonger
are all you need to enjoy this delicious recipe for the perfect Beurre Noir sauce. Melt unsalted butter in a pan ’til it starts to turn a golden brown, remove pan from heat and add in some chopped parsley, salt and pepper and capers, serve over skate or fish. Serve with lemon.

Sorry I know these pics are a long time coming – doesn’t help that I don’t have a digital camera and can’t find a place to develop my film! so these are some shots of Chinese NY taken by Anne Halvorson, permanent AD here in Shanghai but placed from Portland. The other girl in the pictures is Christin, also over from Portland. There are loads of westerners here this week because all Chinese have the week off.

A quick rundown;

the red ribbon is a wish (everything will go your way) that you throw over the wish tree and hope that it gets caught in the branches – not as easy as it sounds! the tree itself is lovely and painted gold. we did that New Years day and it was complete madness down there. I can’t tell you how nice it’s been to be here over New Years. I’ve learnt a lot about appeasing money Gods and am in awe of the fireworks. And do you know as soon as they’ve let off crates of explosives that leave red debris everywhere they all go grab their brooms and sweep up after themselves? It’s impressive.

The red underwear is everywhere, you have to wear it apparently if your year is year of the Dog – the other underwear shot we just thought was funny and a good example of lost in translation. we did get some funny looks taking photos of underwear though.

some of the other shots are us walking through some of the back streets that day too – chinese grafitti which is pretty rare, some run down houses, and lots of washing, always.

work is still crazy, made worse this week with only 20% of us being in the office, but at least the phone isn ‘t ringing and the client is away and I managed to drag everyone out to see Norman Jay last night to dance off some stress which was well needed. we were the last on the dance floor as we should be!

I’ve also been initiated into late-night foot massages whose diagnoses have been spot on – bad back, week knees and I’m not sleeping! Bang on. This place may be mad but it’s in touch with its roots.